


Nothing Simple Is Ever Really Worth It

by circesattendant



Category: New X-Men: Academy X, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Gen, marvel let david be friends with the xkids again challenge, thinkfast if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:40:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23443339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/circesattendant/pseuds/circesattendant
Summary: David was just trying to live his life as simply as possible. and then everything went to shit.
Relationships: David Alleyne & Josh Foley, David Alleyne & Tommy Shepherd
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Nothing Simple Is Ever Really Worth It

**Author's Note:**

> this is a repost of something i posted on a diff acc just trying to sort my shit out :)

David was just trying to live his life as simply as possible. He got a nine to five job, he got an apartment. He was really trying to keep it simple. David liked his life, most of the time. He had gone to therapy just after he left Utopia, in an attempt to nip a lot of his issues at the bud, but there’s not really any running from issues like his.  
He was anxious that everything bit of independence and stability he had managed to build since he left the X-Men would get violently yanked away from him at any moment. He was lonely, all he did was work and go home, and then get up the next morning and repeat that again. No one in his office was particularly interesting, or anywhere near his age. David, whilst never especially loud himself, was used to the loud and excitable personalities at the Institute, so in some ways he was glad he didn’t know anybody that loud. Less reminders of his past the better.  
And then, Tommy Shepherd happened.  
No matter how much he tried, David couldn’t resist the excitement that Tommy brought to his life, the idea that he didn’t have to live just to work, and no matter how hard he tried to distance himself, David could never truly stop missing his friends. The noodles weren’t anything special but the feeling that bubbled inside his chest more than made up for it. The two days that David knew Tommy before everything went wrong again were the most excited he had felt since he could remember. But, as with everything in David’s life, it didn’t take long for the universe to turn on its head again. The only emotion he could muster when he watched as Tommy vanished was regret. He never should have gotten involved with Tommy’s business in the first place, he was a bad luck charm.  
After the mysterious figure had disappeared too, David was left sitting on the floor of an empty warehouse, numb, confused, guilty. He stumbled out into the cold New York street slowly finding his way back to his apartment in a hase before he decided: no, fuck this!  
He thought back to the day before when they had first met, everything Tommy had said about his old team and everything he had stored in his head about the Young Avengers. Tommy had a brother, Billy, who practiced some form of magic. He had to find Tommy, and Billy may be the best person for the job.  
It took a few days longer than David would have liked to find Billy, having found out that he was not currently in New York thanks to Hawkeye’s Instagram page, it took all tracking knowledge he had absorbed from Logan’s head and a few miracles to find his way to the space diner where he finally found them.  
They were in the middle of their own thing and whilst Billy, Teddy, and Kate were all clearly upset by the news, it still look a while to manage both situations at once. They had fixed the Mother issue. They hadn’t fixed the Tommy issue yet, but apparently it was still time for a party. David couldn’t find a polite way to refuse the invitation, so he went. He felt pretty shitty, but he went. He stayed on the outskirts of the party sulking in his failure, and occasionally, he would spot someone he knew. He saw Cessily and Roxy dancing, they looked happy and relaxed in a way that was so rare in the days before he left them. He saw Julian, Victor, and Santo, he saw the way they were all managing to smile even after everything that had happened.  
“God, you’ve really hit bottom, haven’t you? “ There was slight humour in this familiar voice, but also a hint of sadness.  
David turned to see Josh. Memories surged through his mind, ones he had been pushing further back into the recesses of his mind in hopes he could simply forget. His breath caught in his throat and he could feel tears rising. Jay, Laurie, the New Mutants training squad had been his family, and here he was trying to forget them.  
“Josh, I-” David couldn’t say anything else before Josh pulled into a tight hug and streams of tears escaped David eyes even as he kept them tightly shut. “Josh, I-I fucked it all up again. It’s my fault.” Even after all this time, Josh was still so easy to talk to, such a safe and reassuring presence, David couldn’t help but spill everything that had been plaguing him.  
“Come on man, you know that’s not true!” Josh pulled away from the hug and guided him gently outside to sit on the grass hill. “Wanna talk about whatever it is that’s all your fault this time?” David rolled his eyes at Josh’s sarcastic tone but let himself get yanked down to sit next to him.  
Briefly he wondered if he should find a way to run, to keep his distance from his friends, his family so he didn’t have to fully confront the loss they all shared. But Josh looked up at him, eyes full of concern and David was left wondering how, even after how he had left without much of an explanation and hadn’t even tried to contact any of them in over a year, Josh held no bitterness and resentment towards him. He simply just cared for David.  
David had thought that, until that point, he had simply been trying to live his life, as simply as possible. He had thought he had nipped his issues in the bud. He had been kidding himself.  
He had put so much effort into avoiding and repressing all the memories of his pain and loss that somewhere along the way he had lost all purpose. For the past year, his life had been basic, he worked, he had an apartment. But he had put all his energy in telling himself that he was normal and okay again in an attempt to convince himself that that was what he was.  
“Tommy’s gone,” Cries were still caught in his throat, and his voice came out scratchy. “and I kissed his brother’s boyfriend, and I still have no idea how to get him back.”  
“Okay… is Tommy gone because you kissed his brother’s boyfriend?” Josh raised his eyebrows, but not acknowledging the sort out come out moment in David’s breakdown.  
“No, that happened after.” David corrected with a sad voice.  
Josh let out a breathy laugh “So how is it your fault, you sad sack?”  
“Because I watched him disappear and I couldn’t do shit about it! Because I fucked up the rescue mission by pissing off his brother! Because who the fuck else is there to blame Josh? I’m the only constant variable in disasters like this throughout my life” David mind was reeling, somewhere he was well aware that Josh didn’t deserve to be yelled at like this, that this may mess up the fleeting chance he had just had at getting one of his best friends back. But, unfortunately, that part of his brain wasn’t in control of his mouth. “Everything is my fault Josh!”  
For a split second Josh was visibly taken aback at David’s sudden outburst, but remarkably he recovered fairly quickly and reached out a hand to rest on David’s shoulder, placating.  
“David, how could that possibly be true? Shitty things happen to everyone, especially if that person has spent an extended amount of time around the X-Men! So I think we can just blame everything on them and call it a day!”  
David groaned, pressing his face into his hands and falling back so he was laid out on the ground. “I think I’m having a mid-life crisis Josh.” He moved his hands away from his face as Josh laughed at him. “Seriously though, my friend is still missing and I have run out of solutions.”  
“Okay, yeah that is pretty serious, what exactly happened?”  
David explained the events of the past month to Josh and they bounced around a couple of ideas, most of which David had already tried, some of which had potential. Eventually, David sat up, preparing himself to head home and starting properly working the most promising plans, when he saw it. The Patrinot. Standing at the bottom of the hill, everyone except of David, Josh, and now it, were inside completely unaware. The Patrinot seemed to be staring right at them, and when Dvaid slowly stood up, his heart beating in his throat, it beckoned him over ominously.  
Slowly, David made his way towards it, stopping a few feet away.  
“What do you want? What did you do to Tommy?”  
It just continued to beckon until David was stood within arms reach, he looked back at Josh who had made his way half down the hill behind David before he had motioned for him to wait back. This was definitely ill advised, but David was desperate to get Tommy back to safety. In this moment he had to wonder what it was about Tommy that had made such an impact of David’s life, that after only knowing the guy two days David has spent a month searching endlessly for him. David really wanted the opportunity to get to know him more, he wouldn’t let this be the end for him.  
“Why can’t I figure you out?”  
“Tik-tok, tik-tok.” It’s voice was strange, almost indescribable, but it made David incredibly uncomfortable.  
“Okay, here’s my theory, as part of whatever Billy’s going to do in the future, you were created. You echo backwards, to ensure it comes to pass. You’re a hook to drag us over the event horizon.” He looked it in the eye, determination building up in the pit of his stomach and overtaking his fear. “You’re the rabbit and we’re all Alice. You’re our guardian angel.”  
He sighed as he looked back at the party. “And it’d say a lot about us if out guardian angel is as messed up as you are. You’re not just a thing, are you? Not a raw creation, one of us becomes you. They sacrifice their existence to ensure it happens.”  
“What must be must be. The future…” It’s haunting voice drones, “What must the future be?”  
“Tell me.” David demands, frustration growing. “The one who sacrifices themself, the one who stops being human for a good cause… It’s me.”  
“You’ll find out.” The Patrinot starts to fade away, but David is sick of chasing it. He grabs its arm. “No! Where’s Tommy?” It lunged it’s face towards David’s, and he jerked out of the way on instinct.  
“Denial.”  
Frustration and determination take over David’s brain as he barks back at the monster “I’m not scared of you anymore.” Before he can really think the Patrinot is kissing him, Josh lets out a shout from where he stood watching it unfold, and then it’s Tommy stood where Patrinot just was and they both pull away in shock.  
“Did that thing just kiss you?” Josh yells at the same time Tommy loudly asks  
“What the fuck is happening?”  
David stands, bewildered and confused. What the fuck just happened?  
\---  
It took them awhile, but eventually all three of them broke out of their shock and managed to catch Tommy up on what had happened since the night in the warehouse, a lifetime ago for David, a few seconds ago for Tommy.  
David was exhausted by the time he finished explaining everything, and the three of them just sat on the hill, processing everything that night had brought. His head was spinning, when he had agreed to come to this party, he had seen it being hell. He had imagined seeing his old friends, seeing Billy glare at him from the corner. He did not see himself sat between Tommy Shepherd and Josh Foley, two parts of his messy life colliding in a way he never saw coming. He wasn’t unhappy.  
“Is my apartment even still mine?” Tommy broke the silence, entirely too calm for someone is his position.  
“I.. I honestly have no idea, I’m sorry.” David hadn’t thought of that.  
“I wouldn’t imagine it would be, not after this long.” Josh spoke sympathetically.  
“Damn. Where am I gonna go then?”  
“You’re always welcome to stay at mine but I can only offer you a couch.”  
“You sure?” David met his eyes, a vulnerability he hadn’t seen in them before took him by surprise.  
“Of course I’m sure!” Tommy’s eyes didn’t leave his for a long moment.  
“He wouldn’t offer if he wasn’t sure!” Josh broke through their moment. “Anyway,” He sighed as he stood up, dropping David’s phone back into his lap (which he hadn’t noticed had gone missing) “I gotta go, don’t wanna miss my ride. Don’t be a stranger, man, I mean it. We miss you.” He points his finger at David as he walks backwards towards the party, stumbling a bit over a large rock. David laughed through his nose, looking down at his phone to see his lockscreen had changed to an old picture of him, Josh and Jay taken back before everything went to shit. David smiled down at it fondly before looking back up at Tommy. His reserved and guarded expression had reappeared and David realised that it might take some effort to break that down again. But he was also starting to realise that, in life, nothing simple was ever really worth it.


End file.
